


Anything Else (REPOST)

by issanghessi



Category: Zero Escape (Video Games), Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma - Fandom
Genre: F/M, Fluff, No Dialogue, Post-True Route, Vague descriptions of violence, akane thinks about all the possibilities
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-12
Updated: 2020-04-12
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:14:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23612866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/issanghessi/pseuds/issanghessi
Summary: This is a repost of a fic I wrote in 2016 (noranbitch) that I still quite like! Enjoy!
Relationships: Kurashiki Akane/Tenmyouji Junpei
Kudos: 10





	Anything Else (REPOST)

Akane wakes up at 3:07 in the morning.

It was a habit she supposed, formed after the years of planning taken across a variety of histories, where she and Aoi stayed up for days on end, to prevent her death, to stop Radical-6, set this puzzle up, make sure Clover doesn't grab the axe this time.

And when she wakes up as early as 3 a.m., she often finds it hard to go back to sleep.

So she turns to look at Junpei.

Last year, she didnt believe she'd ever be rewarded with this sight. At best, she thought, the Nonary Game would be a success and she would live, at the cost of never seeing Junpei again. And this moment proved her wrong.

He's sleeping peacefully, snoring lightly and moving around once in a while, his chest rising and falling.

Akane has to pinch herself once, twice, to make sure this isn't just a cruel fantasy her mind had made up, and now she's sure, she's certain, and she's so, so happy that this moment, this history, is real.

Akane turns to look at the rotating ceiling fan again.

She thinks of all the times everything went wrong, when Hongou had slaughtered everyone in Building Q, when she felt the wind-- and life knocked out of her as Clover slammed the blade of an axe in her chest, when she saw the bodies of Junpei and Carlos riddled with bullets, when everyone involved in the AB Project succumbed to Radical-6, of every single other bloody end she went through, to get to here.

And of course, of course, being burned alive in the incinerator.

Akane thinks about the histories she hasn't been through as well.

She knows there's a history where she wasnt kidnapped in 2018, where she got her Christmas wish from Santa for things to stay just as they are. That in that history, maybe she kept in touch with Junpei throughout junior high, and maybe they went to a festival in high school, where she finally fit into her mother's yukata, and maybe they shared a kiss and eventually got married and had children, all without the pain the last eleven years had caused the two.

Of course, she knows that if Delta was right, that future would end in a nuclear war caused by a religious fanatic.

She knows that this future is full of fear and uncertainty, that this could still possibly end in a nuclear apocalypse, that everything from this point forward was shrouded in mystery.

Akane looks at the ring on her right hand, and turns over to face Junpei again.

Finally feeling drowsy enough to go back to sleep, she rests her head in the crook of his neck, listening to his breathing.

As she drifts to sleep, she knows she wouldn't trade this moment for anything else.


End file.
